Bits and pieces of my life. I am a lifelong Christian. I have been married for over 39 years to Stan. No children. We have 3 Italian Greyhounds: Persephone, Dresden & Capodimonte and a calico cat named Binky. We have 9 nieces/nephews and 9 grandnieces/nephews whom we love. My hobbies are genealogy, reading, digital scrapbooking, history, dogs, homemaking. This is a personal blog and not a business. I share what interests me and I am not selling anything or making a profit.

He is my 2nd cousin three times removed. So it's a very distant relationship. I like to fill out all the information on my direct ancestors and their siblings and children so sometimes I get a little far afield. But I do love coming across an interesting character.

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Lemuel "Lem" Braley was born 9/10/1881 in Dallas, Dallas County, TX to William Henry Harrison Brawley (DOB 9/23/1841 in Iredell County, NC; DOD 2/26/1898 in Dallas, Dallas County, TX) and Mary "Mollie" Elizabeth Hatter (DOB 2/7/1842 in Lincoln County, KY; DOD 10/14/1913 in Dallas, Dallas County, TX).

Mary "Mollie" Elizabeth Hatter married Andrew Fritts first and had Dena Ann Fritts (DOB 5/1865 in KY; DOD ? in ? ). Dena Ann married J.S. Sharp about 1886 in Dallas County, TX.

Mary "Mollie" Elizabeth Hatter then married William Henry Harrison Brawley about 1873 in Anderson County, TX. They had 5 children:

4) Nellie Braley (DOB 9/4/1888 in Dallas County, TX; DOD 9/16/1925 in Dallas County, TX) married Joe T. Bryant (DOB About 1884 in GA; DOD ? in ? ). They had Emily E. Bryant and James W. Bryant.

5) Infant Braley (died in infancy)

As you can see, the parents lost one child in infancy and little Frank Baley died at 2 years old. Their only daughter, Nellie Braley, committed suicide by drinking a poison called bichloride of mercury.

* Bichloride of Mercury is the chemical compound of mercury and chlorine with the formula HgCl2. Mercuric chloride is highly toxic, both acutely and as a cumulative poison. After ingesting, it doesn't stay in the stomach long. Within 15 mins most of it has been absorbed.
Bichloride of Mercury poisoning:
Abdominal pain (severe)
Breathing difficulty - severe
Decreased urine output (may stop completely)
Diarrhea (bloody)
Drooling
Metallic taste
Mouth lesions
Pain in the throat and mouth - severe
Shock
Swelling in the throat - may be severe
Vomiting

It is a heavy crystalline poisonous compound HgCl2 used as a disinfectant and fungicide and in photography. In the days before antibiotics, physicians used mercury bichloride (also called mercury chloride without the “bi”) to treat a variety of diseases, notably syphillis. Highly toxic, odorless, and colorless, it was meant to be applied topically to the sores that; developed as this disease progressed. It was also used in very diluted form (1 part to 1000) for tonsillitis.

Several deaths during the Roaring Twenties brought this poison to the attention of the entire country. The first was the death in Paris of silent film star Olive Thomas (October 20, 1894 – September 10, 1920), wife of leading man Jack Pickford whose sister, Mary Pickford, was the foremost actress of her day. Whether Olive’s death was accidental, as Jack always claimed, suicide, or murder was never determined. The French were quick to ship the body, Jack, and the scandal home to America where the controversy raged for months. No definitive cause of death was ever established.

Another highly publicized death occurred in 1925 when a young woman named Madge Oberholtzer (November 10, 1896–April 14, 1925) was kidnapped, tortured, and raped by the head of Indiana’s powerful Ku Klux Klan, D.C. Stephenson. She managed to get hold of some mercury bichloride pills and swallowed them to kill herself. She died a few days later after having had the presence of mind to accuse the Grand Dragon in signed testimony. Her written words were instrumental in convicting the man of murder, and the resulting publicity destroyed the KKK in Indiana.

Out of five children, only Henry and Lem Braley made it to old age.

They lived in Dallas, TX most of their lives. I found them in the U.S. City Directories.

1900 U.S. Census of Swiss Avenue Annex, Dallas Ward 10, Dallas County, Texas; Roll: 1625; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0121; FHL microfilm: 1241625, Lines 20-26, "M.E. O'Neal"M.E. O'Neal, Head, W(hite), F(emale), Born Feb, 1848, 52 yrs old, Married 1 yr (DOM 1899), 8 children with 6 still living, Born in KY, Father born in VA, Mother born in KY, Real estate, Can read and write, Owns home free of mortgageD.A. Sharp, Daughter, W, F, Born May, 1865, 35 yrs old, Married 14 yrs (DOM 1886), 1 child with 1 still living, Born in TX, Father born in LA, Mother born in KY, No occupation, Can read and writeMaria Lee Sharp, Grandchild, W, F, Born Apr, 1894, 6 yrs old, Born in TX, Father born "Unknown", Mother born in TXJ.S. Sharp, Son-in-law, W, M, Born Sept, 1853, 48 yrs old, Married 14 yrs, Born in TN, Both parents born in TN, No occupation, Can read and writeHenry Braley, Son, W, M, Born Dec, 1876, 23 yrs old, Single, Born in TX, Father born in NC, Mother born in KY, Real estate, Can read and writeLem Braley, Son, W, M, Born Sept, 1881, 18 yrs old, Single, Born in TX, Father born in NC, Mother born in KY, Can read and writeNellie Braley, Daughter, W, F, Born Sept 1888, 11 yrs old, Single, Born in TX, Father born in NC, Mother born in KY

1910 U.S. Census of Annex Avenue, Dallas Ward 6, Dallas County, Texas; Roll: T624_1543; Page: 11B; Enumeration District:0048; FHL microfilm: 1375556, Lines 85-88, "Henry Braley"Henry Braley, Head, M(ale), W(hite), 33 yrs old (DOB 1877), 1st marriage, Married 4 yrs (DOM 1906), Born in TX, Father born in NC, Mother born in KY, Contractor artesian wells, Can read and write, Owns home free of mortgageLucille Braley, Wife, F, W, 34 yrs old (DOB 1876), 1st marriage, Married 4 yrs, 3 children with 3 still living, Born in VA, Father born in MD, Mother born in VA, Can read and writeLem Braley, Brother, M, W, 28 yrs old (DOB 1882), Single, Born in TX, Father born in NC, Mother born in KY, Cost Clerk for Gin mfg co, Can read and writeJohn S. Sharp, Brother-in-law, M, W, 56 yrs old (DOB 1854), Widowed, Born in TN, Both parents born in TN, Contractor artesian wells

* Policy game - Gambling - lottery in which bets are made on an unpredictable number, such as a daily stock quotation; an illegal lottery in which money is wagered on a certain combination of digits appearing at the beginning of a series of numbers published in a newspaper, as in share prices or sports results. Often shortened to numbers. A policy wheel is a lottery wheel. Numbers game, also known as a numbers racket, policy racket, Italian lottery, o nigger pool is an illegal lottery played mostly in poor neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day. In recent years, the "number" would be the last three digits of "the handle"—the amount race track bettors placed on race day at a major racetrack—published in racing journals and major newspapers in New York. A gambler places a bet with a bookie at a tavern or other semi-private place that acts as a betting parlor. A runner carries the money and betting slips between the betting parlors and the headquarters, called a numbers bank or policy bank. The name "policy" is from a similarity to cheap insurance, both seen as a gamble on the future. he game dates back at least to the beginning of the Italian lottery in 1530. "Policy shops," where bettors choose numbers, were in the United States prior to 1860. In 1875, a report of a select committee of the New York State Assembly stated that "the lowest, meanest, worst form ... [that] gambling takes in the city of New York, is what is known as policy playing." The game was popular in Italian neighborhoods in America and known as the "Italian lottery." It was also common in many urban African-American, Irish-American, and Jewish-American communities. It was known in Cuban-American communities as bolita ("little ball"). By the early 20th century, the game was associated with poor communities and could be played for as little as $0.01. One of the game's attractions to low income and working class bettors was the ability to bet small amounts of money. Also, unlike state lotteries, bookies could extend credit to the bettor. Policy winners could avoid paying income tax. Different policy banks would offer different rates, though a payoff of 600 to 1 was typical. Since the odds of winning were 1,000:1, the expected profit for racketeers was enormous. One of the problems of the early game was to find a way to draw a random number. Initially, winning numbers were set by the daily outcome of a random drawing of numbered balls, or by spinning a "policy wheel", at the headquarters of the local numbers ring. The daily outcomes were publicized by being posted after the draw at the headquarters, and were often "fixed". The existence of rigged games, used to cheat players and drive competitors out of business, later led to the use of the last three numbers in the published daily balance of the United States Treasury. The use of a central independently chosen number allowed for gamblers from a larger area to engage in the same game and it made larger wins possible. When the Treasury began rounding off the balance many bookies began to use the "mutuel" number. This consisted of the last dollar digit of the daily total handle of the Win, Place and Show bets at a local race track, read from top to bottom. For example, if the daily handle (takings at the racetrack) was:
Win.....$1004.25
Place....$583.56
Show......$27.61
...then the daily number was 437. By 1936, "The Bug" had spread to cities such as Atlanta where the winning number was determined by the last digit of that day's New York bond sales.